Congratulations to Elizabeth Kadetsky, Penn State Associate Professor of Nonfiction and Fiction, for her fourth book The Memory Eaters, winner of the Juniper Prize in Creative Nonfiction, which was published recently on March 31st, 2020 by the University of Massachusetts Press! Her book has been received with great critical acclaim and featured in a variety of blogs and magazines!

In The Memory Eaters, Kadetsky constructs a journey through memory in how it has the capabilities to contradict itself and hold hurt and trauma, yet has the evocative ability to preserve and immortalize the stories and figures we love, through the frame of her family’s cyclical and intergenerational incidents in 1970s-80s New York City to the present.  Dinty Moore, author of Between Panic and Desire, praises how Kadetksy’s “precise eye for detail, the lushness of her prose, her relentless and unflinching determination to comprehend a family’s incalculable mysteries, shape a vividly unforgettable memoir of longing and discovery.”

Kadetsky will be hosting and/or be featured in a variety of upcoming virtual and in-person events to promote, read from, and provide further insight on The Memory Eaters, some of which are listed below. For further details and current updates on these events, visit Elizabeth Kadetsky’s website!

April 21 (online event)
Pittsburgh launch, in conversation with Irina Reyn, White Whale Bookstore. 4754 Liberty Ave.
7pm EST
Location: Zoom
Access details: Sign in to Zoom using this ID: https://zoom.us/j/559238767

May 9 (live event, check website for more current details)
Hudson, NY, May 9, 7pm, Volume Reading and Music Series at Spotty Dog Books and Ale. 440 Warren St.

Tuesday, May 26 (online event)
Decameron Reading Series with host Brian Gresko and authors Sejal Shah and Lisa Olstein
8pm EST
Location: Zoom
Access details: e-link tbd (Check website for more current details)

June 13 (live event, check website for more current details)
Ithaca, NY, 4pm, with Sejal Shah and Melanie Conroy-Goldman Hamilton, Buffalo Street Books, The Dewitt Mall, 215 North Cayuga St.

June 24 (live event, check website for more current details)
New York City Launch, 6:30pm, in conversation with Betsy Carter, Shakespeare and Company Upper East Side, 939 Lexington Ave. (betw. 68th and 69th)

Nov 12
Penn State University, 7:30pm, Mary K. Rolling reading series, Foster Auditorium, Pattee Library, State College, PA

Unfortunately, due to the global COVID-19 outbreak and Penn State’s cancellation of in-person classes, events, and gatherings, the following upcoming events have been cancelled:

Red Weather Reading Series: Gabriel Green (March 16th)

Fisher Writer in Residence: Walter Kirn (April 9th)

Rolling Reading Series: Alice McDermott (April 16th)

We are committed to the health and wellbeing of the Penn State Creative Writing community and our visiting writers and so we hope that during this straining time, you remain safe and healthy! In the mean time, check out footage of past readings and interviews with visiting writers on our Video tab. We hope that reading and writing can continue to be a source of joy and relief in these times!

Known for poems that refuse to fall into specific spaces of time or genre, poet Chet’la Sebree will offer a reading as part of the Mary E. Rolling Reading Series. The free public reading will be held on Thursday, February 13, at 7:30 pm, in Paterno Library’s Foster Auditorium.

Sebree has received fellowships from the Delaware Division of Arts, The MacDowell Colony, Hedgebrook, Yaddo, the Stadler Center, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies. She is the 2018 co-recipient of Yaddo’s National Endowment of the Arts Residency for Collaborative Teams with poet and writer Shayla Lawson. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Kenyon Review, Colorado Review, Pleiades, wilderness, Guernica, Poetry International, and The Account, along with many other publications.

Chet’la Sebree is the author of the poetry collection Mistress, published in October 2019, which won the 2018 New Issues Poetry Prize and was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry. In Mistress, Sebree inhabits the interior life and voice of Sally Hemings, a woman of mixed race who was a slave at Monticello and had several children with U.S. president Thomas Jefferson.  Cathy Park Hong, judge of the 2018 New Issues Poetry Prize, describes Sebree’s debut collection as work that faces “the dark looming historical forces of miscegenation, enslavement, and the abjection of the black female body,” and her language as a “scythe that glints wildly.” Poet and Penn State Professor of English Shara McCallum lauds Mistress for “restoring history, teaching us how to ‘bear this legacy.’”

Sebree’s current projects include a book-length hybrid titled Field Study, upcoming in 2021, which is funded by the Delaware Division of Arts. Sebree received her MFA in creative writing from American University. Currently she is an Assistant Professor of English and the Director of the Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts at Bucknell University.

The Mary E. Rolling Series is a program offered by Penn State’s Creative Writing Program in English, which receives generous support from the College of the Liberal Arts; the Department of English; the Joseph L. Grucci Poetry Endowment; the Mary E. Rolling Lectureship in Creative Writing; and University Libraries. The full list of readings in the 2019–20 series can be found online at https://creativewriting.psu.edu/.

Emily Rolfe Grosholz, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy, African American Studies, and English, will offer a reading as part of the Mary E. Rolling Reading Series. The reading is free and open to the public and will be held in Paterno Library’s Foster Auditorium on Thursday, January 30, at 7:30 pm.

Grosholz has published nine books of poetry. Notably, the lyrical collection Childhood (2014), composed of poems inspired by the four children she raised with her husband Robert Edwards, has been translated into five languages and supports UNICEF. And her most recent collections The Stars of Earth: New and Selected Poems (2017) and Great Circles: The Transits of Mathematics and Poetry (2018) showcase Grosholz’s larger interests in the intersections between philosophy, mathematics, science, and language. Stars of Earth begins with recent poems from a year’s worth of observations on the social and natural world, organized by months, and is followed by selections from past poetic work. Grosholz weaves her poems with strands of philosophy, mathematics, and science in highly lyrical verse to compellingly “link geometry and physics to the apricot color of a robin’s breast,” as described by acclaimed American poet Mark Jarman, who further characterizes Grosholz as a “poet of radiant intelligence, patient lyricism, and meticulous craft.”

In the collection Great Circles, Grosholz delves deeper into the interconnected nature of poetry and mathematics by exploring their parallels and links. The relationships between mathematical notions and poetic “figures of thought,” poetic form and mathematical structure, and the infinite and the finite are explored in diverse, sophisticated poems that move through different medias, literary and philosophical references, and fields of science and mathematics.

Emily Grosholz has taught at Penn State University since 1979 and is a member of the Center for Fundamental Theory/Institute for Gravitation and Cosmos. In 2017, she was awarded the Fernando Gil International Prize in Philosophy of Science. Grosholz has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), and is associated with SPHERE/REHSEIS at the University of Paris as a researcher. Additionally, Grosholz has served as an advisory editor for the Hudson Review since 1984. Her books illustrate her collaborations with the artists Farhad Ostovani, Lucy Vines Bonnefoy, Robert Fathauer and Paul Resika; and a set of CDs and projects record her musical collaborations with Bruce Trinkley, Koko Tanikawa, Mirco De Stefani and Hinako Omori, who turned her poems into songs.

The Mary E. Rolling Reading Series is a program offered by Penn State’s Creative Writing Program in English that receives generous support from the College of the Liberal Arts; the Department of English; the Joseph L. Grucci Poetry Endowment; the Mary E. Rolling Lectureship in Creative Writing; and University Libraries.  A full list of readings in the 2019-20 series can be found at https://creativewriting.psu.edu/.

There are several upcoming opportunities that offer undergraduate writers valuable recognition and prize money:

Kalliope 2020: Submit your fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, and photography for the chance to be published in this year’s edition of Kalliope, Penn State’s Undergraduate Literary Magazine by January 22nd, midnight. Details on how to email your submissions can be found on Kalliope‘ website.

Penn State English Department’s Undergraduate Writing Contests: Submit your fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to the department’s contests by January 27th for the chance to win awards and prize money. You can submit and find more details on the English department’s website.

Award-winning poet Todd Davis, known for his lyric meditations on the natural beauty of his Pennsylvania home ground, will offer a reading as part of the Mary E. Rolling Reading Series. The free public reading will be held in Foster Auditorium in Paterno Library on Thursday, November 14, at 7:30 pm.

Davis is the author of seven collections of poetry: Ripe (2002), Some Heaven (2007), The Least of These (2010), Household of Water, Moon, & Snow: The Thoreau Poems (2010), In the Kingdom of the Ditch (2013), Winterkill (2016), and most recently, Native Species (2019).  Publishers Weekly praised Davis’ ability to “bring readers into a world rife with danger and darkness as well as quietude and splendor” and “reverently observe nature’s own poetry and how it illuminates the process of change.” Native Species, published by the Michigan State University Press, explores the questions of humanity’s uncertain place in nature and what happens to the souls of all creatures after death. Harvard Review proclaimed it “unflinchingly candid and enduringly compassionate.”

Todd Davis’ poetry has been featured in diverse outlets, from the newspaper column American Life in Poetry edited by Ted Kooser, to anthologies such as The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry, to many noted journals and magazines such as American Poetry Review, Iowa Review, and North American Review. Davis’ work has been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize and has won the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, Chautauqua Editor’s Prize, and the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Silver and Bronze Awards. Davis has also edited several collections of essays, including Fast Break to Line Break: Poets on the Art of Basketball (2012).

Davis is a professor of English and environmental studies at Penn State University’s Altoona College. He is also a fellow in the Black Earth Institute, a think tank that promotes the arts as a means to link the environment, spirituality, and community in an inclusive way.

The Mary E. Rolling Series is a program offered by Penn State’s Creative Writing Program in English, which receives generous support from the College of the Liberal Arts; the Department of English; the Joseph L. Grucci Poetry Endowment; the Mary E. Rolling Lectureship in Creative Writing; and University Libraries.  A full list of readings in the 2019-20 series can be found at https://creativewriting.psu.edu/.

Check out the profiles of our first and second year BA/MA students on the “Student Bios” page!

The BA/MA program is an integrated undergraduate/graduate degree in English with a creative writing concentration in Poetry and in Prose (fiction and creative nonfiction). This is a full-residency program that can be completed in two years—the student’s senior year and the additional M.A. year. Under the supervision of a creative writing faculty member, students complete a substantial creative project and also receive teaching assistantships that provide teaching experience. Applications are due March 15th, 2020. For more information, check out the BA/MA program page on the English Department’s website.

Known for his fresh, well-crafted stories that evoke the American West, writer Callan Wink will offer a reading as part of the Mary E. Rolling Reading Series. The public reading is free and will be held in Foster Auditorium in Paterno Library on Thursday, November 7, at 7:30 pm.

Wink has been the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts literature fellowship and the Wallace Stegner fellowship from Stanford University. Wink’s stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Playboy, Men’s Journal, The Best American Short Stories Anthology, and many other publications.

He is the author of the short story collection Dog Run Moon, which was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and awarded an honorable mention in the 2017 Pen/Hemingway Awards. Publishers Weekly praised Wink for “the transparency of his writing, at once delicate and brutally precise” that “gifts us with the wonderful feeling of knowing someone you’ve only met in a book.” His debut novel, August, a coming of age story of a farm boy from Michigan, is forthcoming in May from Random House Publishing and is being previewed with acclaim.

Wink received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Wyoming. Currently, he splits his time between Santa Cruz, California, and Livingston, Montana. His time in Montana is spent working as a fly-fishing guide.

The Mary E. Rolling Series is a program offered by Penn State’s Creative Writing Program in English, which receives generous support from the College of the Liberal Arts; the Department of English; the Joseph L. Grucci Poetry Endowment; the Mary E. Rolling Lectureship in Creative Writing; and University Libraries.  A full list of readings in the 2019-20 series can be found at https://creativewriting.psu.edu/.

Award-winning magazine writer, essayist, memoirist, and Penn State alumna Vicki Glembocki will offer a reading as part of the Mary E. Rolling Reading Series. The reading is free and open to the public and will be held in Foster Auditorium in Paterno Library on Thursday, October 10, at 7:30 pm.

Glembocki has written for many established publications including Parents, Women’s Health, The Daily Beast, Philadelphia, Salon, More, Playboy, and Ladies Home Journal. Currently, she is a contributing editor and columnist at Reader’s Digest and a Writer at Large at Philadelphia Magazine. Previously she was the articles director at the Philadelphia Magazine. Additionally, Glembocki is the author of the 2009 memoir The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the Real Truth About Becoming a Mom: Finally.

Vicki Glembocki’s large collection of profiles, personal essays, and long-form narratives show her mastery and attention to detail. For The Penn Stater Magazine, she has profiled notable alumni such as Modern Family star Ty Burrell. Her “Suburbanista” column in the Philadelphia Magazine has been described as “wry and subversive” by the City and Regional Magazine awards, which awarded her Best Column in 2014.  And her column for Reader’s Digest called “You be the Judge” has inspired and generated much discussion and a committed reader base since 2013.

Glembocki has served as an editor for The Penn Stater Magazine and Pitt Magazine, and has worked in public relations for Dartmouth University. In addition to writing, Glembocki also serves as a consultant for many magazines and publications on editorial content and strategies. Currently, she resides in Atlanta with her husband and daughters.

Glembocki received both her BA (’93) and MFA (’02) from Penn State, with a focus in nonfiction writing. One article, called “A Ring in Her Navel”, originally written for an undergraduate creative nonfiction class taught by Penn State professor Toby Thompson was published in Playboy – it’s a piece that Thompson says he still teaches in his classes. Glembocki also judged the 2016 Toby Thompson Prize for Literary Nonfiction as part of the English Department Writing Awards.

The Mary E. Rolling Reading Series is a program offered by Penn State’s Creative Writing Program in English. The series receives generous support from the College of the Liberal Arts; the Department of English; the Joseph L. Grucci Poetry Endowment; the Mary E. Rolling Lectureship in Creative Writing; and University Libraries.  A full list of readings in the 2019-20 series can be found at https://creativewriting.psu.edu/.

(Glembocki photo: provided by author)

(The Modern Man: The Penn Stater Magazine)